Which are the best tools for enterprise collaboration? The ones that employees will use, of course … But also the ones that have the strength required by IT.

What today’s organizations need are collaboration tools that first deliver an easy, intuitive, and flexible experience for users. But beyond that user experience the tool must offer robust security, administration controls, and integration with other enterprise applications.

How do you find the best collaboration tools for your organization? Start with a bottoms-up look at what has already been adopted by individual teams.​

At some point, just about every decision made in a large organization requires stakeholder buy-in – and when it comes to purchasing new software platforms for the business, you need to get your IT decision makers on board.

Though “shadow IT” (the use of software and other information technology outside of IT’s purview) is common in many organizations, taking a rogue approach to tech adds risk to any technology project. This can make it harder to apply holistic, company-wide approaches and processes, or introduce security risks that non-technical employees may be ill-equipped to deal with.​When business and IT leaders are aligned, companies are better able to find solutions that successfully support employee needs and organizational objectives with fewer downsides. But while one recent literature review from Stockholm University found that business-IT alignment is associated with better overall performance, the study also noted that for many companies, getting everyone on the same page is typically an elusive feat.​

In order to create and maintain a successful and productive organization, you must place a significant amount of focus on employee experience and the tools and technology they use.

Alan Lepofsky, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, studies how recent advances in productivity technology are creating significant workplace challenges for employees. When workers are bombarded with too much information, too many disconnected tools, and too many points of contact, the software applications that are supposed to be helping them be more productive may actually be slowing them down.​

Ovum, an international analyst firm, has just released the latest in its series of “On the Radar” research reports that track vendors that are driving innovation in their markets. The report finds that Smartsheet “bears watching as a strong leader in the collaborative work execution category.”

The company's core value proposition is offering a no-code platform that addresses the business end user.

The company's acquisition of Converse.AI allows users to build intelligent chatbots for automation.

According to the report: “The Smartsheet work execution platform provides a solution to the way enterprises need to work today by creating a persistent, shared conversational workspace where users can communicate and share content in one place. It brings content from other apps into one centralized workstream and creates a portal where users receive persistent messaging, alerts, notifications, activity streams, and content-sharing functionalities.”

Identifying the right technology platform to help your business speed up operations takes a lot of work. But ensuring the adoption of that platform across the organization is a challenge in itself.

Here are four tips on how to accelerate the adoption of your new SaaS platform. You’ll want to consider taking action on some of these before you invest in new technology, to make sure your business users are set up for success.​

1. Reduce the Burden on IT

Whenever possible, select software that will reduce the burden on IT, rather than adding tasks to your backlog. During your purchasing process, consider what implementation will look like and what the onboarding process entails for business users.​

Not long ago, enterprise IT departments would purchase a new application, deploy it to thousands of employees and hope for the best that they would use it. If the app didn’t align precisely with workflows, or if valuable features were hard to find, there was a good chance usage would be low.

We’ve come a long way since then. Interfaces for business software have greatly improved and some applications allow a degree of customization to match the task at hand. But there’s a lot more that can be done to ensure enterprises get maximum value and productivity from their enterprise applications. Machine learning will make a lot of that possible.​